About

Hi,

Thank you for visiting my blog. My name is Maggie Cammiss and in my head I’m still 30 years old. I’m told my surname is Flemish, maybe even Walloon, though I haven’t checked this out. I come from Yorkshire, spent over thirty years in London and now live in the beautiful Norfolk countryside. I moved up here with my partner, Nick, several years ago and we haven’t looked back.

I was at Sky News for seventeen years, most of them as Head of the News Library and I came away from the 24-hour-rolling-news environment with lots of material for several novels. I’ve put it to good use – my first novel, No News is Good News, was published by Accent Press in December 2014. You can read a short synopsis under the Fiction tab.

For nine years I worked for The History of Advertising Trust, the archive to the advertising industry and a registered charity, where I was constantly inspired by the craft and creativity of the advertising copywriter. I still write editorial for the charity and I also love writing short stories for my local writing group, Cutting Edge Writers, some of which appear in our latest anthology.

In 2011 I entered the NaNoWriMo Challenge and completed it with the first 50,000 words of my next novel. You can read my Challenge diary under the NaNoWriMo tab.

Now I have retired can concentrate on other aspects of writing that interest me. Reading is another great passion, and I will be sharing some of my favourites.

I enjoyed reading through your NANO experience! I participated this year for the first time also, and it was great. I’m not yet done with my book, but did exceed 50,000 words to “win”. Looking forward to revising and trying to have it published. :o) Will you continue your blog now the NANO month is over?

Hi Caridwen,
Thank you so much for your kind comments. NaNo was a great experience – having won the challenge, I’ve also got to finish my novel, but at least the end is in sight.
Yes, I do intend to keep the blog going, with more general writing material, so please come by again. I’m really enjoying this contact with other writers.

Great blog 🙂 I tried NaNo once but failed miserably. However I am determined to try again…maybe next year!

I love Norfolk, it’s beautiful. My fantasy writing life would be me living in a windmill (a la Jonathan Creek!) somewhere in the Norfolk countryside! Ho hum. I am currently attempting to paint a watercolour of some Norfolk lavender fields instead!

Hello, Maggie! You have a fantastic blog here, and I hope you don’t mind if I steal a few set-up ideas for my own. =) I write short stories and attended NaNoWriMo as well, but I never thought about given them page space on the blog. Any pointers for a new wordpress acolyte? I loved your stories and can’t wait to read more.

Thank you so much! I can’t give you too much advice about the whole blogging thing – I just fumbled around until it looked right. I’m sure I don’t use half the gadgets and gizmos I could – I don’t have that sort of mind. But I’m learning! Putting my NaNo diary on the blog was a good introduction because I didn’t feel pressured to write more than a few sentences each day.

Getting the balance right in our lives is difficult, there’s no getting away from it. The secret, if it is a secret, is not to let the blogging interfere too much with everything else that’s going on. When it becomes arduous, or a burden, we know we’ve got the balance wrong. But we live to write, don’t we? We find a way. Thanks for stopping by. 🙂

Hi Maggie, I have been invited on a blog tour and thought you may be interested. There are 10 questions to answer and post on your blog. If you like, I can forward the details to you. Your turn to post will be on the 26th December.
cheers
Luciana

1) What is the working title of your book?
2) Where did the idea come from for your book?
3) What genre does your book fall under?
4) Which actors would you choose to play in your movie rendition?
5) What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?
6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
What other books would you compare this story to?
9) Who or what inspired you to write the book?
10) What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
At the bottom of these questions, you will list the blog links to your other authors and mention for your readers to visit their blog the following week.

In my attempt to write stand up comedy I have joined a local Derbyshire writing group. Whilst a full spectrum of authors are there, ranging in age from 70 upwards, i am struggling to get critical feedback beyond grammar and punctuation, which interests me little. Even my hilarious memoirs of my Fathers cremation have failed to stimulate them. Where could I seek more specialist feedback?

Comedy is very subjective – one size certainly doesn’t fit all. I’d say you’re pitching to the wrong audience, with all due respect to your fellow writing group members. If you have aspirations to perform your comedy yourself, there’s no better way than getting out there and doing it to see what works. Terrifying thought! Comedy clubs in pubs etc often have 5 minute ‘open mike’ sessions to encourage new comedians and that is where you will find out if what you’re writing is indeed funny. The opinions of close friends, family and sympathetic writing group members don’t count.
I have every confidence. 🙂